


Time Long Past

by Aztecl



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [4]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Eugenics Wars (mentioned), FebuWhump2021, Gen, Genetic Engineering, Medical Inaccuracies, Medical Trauma, Occupation of Bajor, Sisko is so done with this shit, welcome to deep space nine, where everything goes wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29419476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aztecl/pseuds/Aztecl
Summary: Kira watched from the corner of her eyes before redirecting her attention back to the view screen. Before she could react or issue a warning, the computer blared an alarm. The anomaly was pulsing and showering barely visible strands of light at the front of the runabout. The last thing she heard before completely losing consciousness was the sound of Julian hitting the ground behind her.*Or, Kira and Julian get de-aged. Angsty because y'all know me by now. Written loosely for Febuwhump day twelve ("Who are you?").
Relationships: Jadzia Dax & Benjamin Sisko, Julian Bashir & Kira Nerys, Julian Bashir & Miles O'Brien, Kira Nerys & Miles O'Brien
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140485
Comments: 15
Kudos: 27





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I'm gonna write a quick one-shot for Febuwhump about de-aging
> 
> Also me: Dude I've got a great idea and we should totally write it instead of writing a quick one-shot
> 
> Still me: Hmmm, yeah okay :D

"Long-range scanners aren't picking up anything," Kira said.

She peered at the view screen and tried to take in everything about the anomaly. From its strange green glow and splotches of white in the middle, there was everything to be unusual about it. Neither her or Doctor Bashir had a clue towards its whereabouts or intentions.

Julian's hands flew across his console. He frowned. "It seems to resemble some sort of temporal anomaly. We should call the Chief."

"Agreed."

Miles had been exhausted with all the repairs he had been stuck with after a recent skirmish with the Jem'Hadar involving the _Defiant_. Circuits had been fried. Systems had been malfunctioning. The computer's voice was coming out two tones too low and carried a stutter. The list went on and on and on.

He had decided to take the first half of their journey - a research project on a planet a few hours away from the wormhole - to sleep off his fatigue.

Julian stood up. He started across the runabout, intending to head into the back and wake up Miles.

Kira watched from the corner of her eyes before redirecting her attention back to the view screen. Before she could react or issue a warning, the computer blared an alarm. The anomaly was pulsing and showering barely visible strands of light at the front of the runabout. The last thing she heard before completely losing consciousness was the sound of Julian hitting the ground behind her.

* * *

The first thing Miles registered was the sound of the computer beeping. He groaned and tried to focus on the noise to rouse himself.

"Computer," he muttered, "time?"

"It is 1400 hours. Warning, spike in system energy recorded at 1330."

"Well why didn't you tell me?" Miles realized now that the beeping was the standard alarm he'd set to wake him. "Run a level one diagnostic of computer systems, damnit."

"C-cannot perform requested function at this time."

He was wide awake now. "Can you scan for Major Kira and Doctor Bashir?"

"Two humanoid life-signs are present."

"You said an energy surge... Is the runabout damaged?"

"Systems o-operating within parameters."

Miles cursed under his breath and pulled on his uniform jacket. He tapped his combadge while pulling on his boots.

"O'Brien to Kira." No response. "O'Brien to Bashir." There was still nothing, so he quickened his pace and stood up. "Damnit. Must be unconscious..."

Despite being awake and alert, it took him a few seconds to get the door open. Miles stepped out and looked around. To his horror, he realized why the computer had neglected to tell him the specifics when it came to his friends. _Two humanoid life-signs..._ It had never actually said they were Julian or Kira, likely because the system didn't know how to process whatever the hell had happened.

"You're a fucking collaborator!" A strong yet young voice shouted. "Now tell me who you _really_ are!"

"I already told you!" Another voice said frantically.

Stepping out from the corner of the room, Miles took in the scene. Flashbacks from the _Enterprise_ and its de-aging incident filled his mind.

There was a small Bajoran girl with a Human in a headlock position. She was small and frail, but apparently made up for it in aggression and strength. Miles had a sudden thought of anger, likely with him being a father himself. She was obviously malnourished - and obviously Kira.

Julian was tall and thin, but he still had some meat on his bones unlike the Bajoran holding him in a struggle. Miles spotted the doctor's medical tricorder and phaser on the ground, a few meters separating them. Kira had hers in her hand, and Miles could only hope it was still set to stun.

They looked like _fucking_ teenagers wearing their now shrunken uniforms respectively. He thought they looked a bit younger than Jake had when they had all arrived on DS9, but it was hard to tell.

Especially when one child was threatening to kill the other.

"Er, hello?" He said.

Instantly Kira pointed the phaser at him. Fire burned in her gaze. "You have ten seconds to tell me who you are, or—" she redirected it at Julian's head— "he dies."

Miles noticed her notice his own phaser. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Miles O'Brien."

He slowly lifted his phaser from its place on his uniform and slid it across the ground towards her. Miles looked at Julian and realized that his face was turning blue with oxygen loss.

This time, when Kira spoke with narrowed eyes, he detected a small tremor. "My name is Brica Olko."

Miles had to keep from calling her out on the lie. "Okay. Can you release him?"

"Not until you tell me where the hell we are and how we got here," Kira replied, tightening her grip on the wheezing boy.

"You have the weapons already!" Miles raised his hands. "You'll kill him if you don't release him!"

"I've killed Cardassians," she spat in a low voice. "I don't know what the both of you are, but people always die no matter who they are."

"P-please," Julian whispered. There were tinges of desperation in his voice. "P-p—"

She rolled her eyes at his pleas, but gave in and released him. Kira shoved him towards Miles, and Julian hit the ground at his feet, coughing and gasping for breath.

"Now _talk_."

Miles hoped the Dominion wouldn't find them before the situation was resolved. He wasn't a religious man, but he prayed to the Prophets and whatever gods he could think of.

* * *

She didn't trust him or the boy apparently named Julian. They were Humans, not Cardies, but the possibility of them being collaborators lingered at the back of her head. And don't even get her started on the whole "You're in the future because your adult selves were turned into children" excuse! It was the most ridiculous thing Kira had ever heard.

Now that "Miles" thought they were calmed down, Julian sitting on the floor with a degree of tenseness in his frame and her on a chair in front of dozens of lights and buttons, he tried to make conversation. The audacity...

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked the two of them.

Neither of them spoke. Kira glared at Julian as he looked at his feet and mumbled something with that annoying voice of his.

"I-I was walking home from school," he said, which Kira instantly recognized as a lie.

She snorted and twitched her hand towards the phaser she held beside her. "That's a lie." Turning to Miles, she said, "You can't possibly believe him."

"Okay, _Kira_."

Against her control, Kira's eyes widened and her breath hitched in her throat.

"Fine. I wanted to talk, so I'll talk." Time to show these Humans their place. "I was running to my resistance cell after taunting a couple Cardies up by the caves. It was risky but I did it anyway."

"Because you're determined to fight for freedom from the Occupation," Miles finished. "I'm telling you - I know you well, Kira."

* * *

Julian watched the exchange with a dry mouth and panic seeping into his mind.

He'd been easily called out for his lie, which of course wasn't totally false. He had walked home from school, arriving at his house with an entire list of things to tell his parents about - the tennis tournament he'd won with top marks, the test he aced in science, and even the novel he had finished in less than a day!

Then he had opened his front door and discovered no one was home. It was fine with him, as Julian remembered the trophy in his backpack along with the photo a kind parent had taken of the tournament. He wondered if he could frame it.

Julian climbed the steps leading into the attic. He opened a box with dust coating the seals. There was a stack of papers at the top where he had expected a hollow picture frame or at least a few padds. Bold letters were streaked across the top page: _ADIGEON_ _PRIME GENERAL HOSPITAL._

As a knot formed in his chest, Julian read on about his genetic enhancements. The trophy slipped from his other hand and shattered into dozens of useless pieces. Dozens of distorted reflections of Jules stared back at him, and eventually, he dropped the name and everything else as Julian Bashir fled from the home.

He remembered that night had been falling when he had turned and started back home. Soon everything blurred and became fuzzy with confusion. That was before waking up with an angry Bajoran and a nice man with fuzzy hair.

Julian gasped aloud, but ignored the looks he got from Miles and Kira.

He was being punished for his enhancements. He was so useless and stupid that he couldn't even form an excuse. He would be killed or imprisoned, no matter what Miles had said about them being safe. His parents had lied to protect him for the past eight years - protecting him from their very own government.

Julian thought back to what he knew about the Bajoran Occupation. It was something to do with the Cardassians, right? He looked at the Federation combadge, its obvious symbol of what he had once thought was safety and freedom and _respect_. In reality, it was the Federation punishing him. Miles and the government he represented were all just his version of the Cardassians - a game of cat and mouse.

Well, he wouldn't be enslaved to their beliefs. He would fight like the resistance fighter sitting in the very same room. Slowly, an idea grew in Julian's mind...

* * *

"Julian. Are you alright?" Miles asked, looking at his friend with concern when a sudden thought came to him. "How old are you?"

Without knowing the age of Julian, Miles wasn't sure if he knew about the genetic engineering yet. Did he know about Adigeon Prime? Now that he focused on Julian instead of Kira, he realized that the talkative Julian was uncharacteristically silent.

Kira was watching them again. He thought it extremely unsettling that such a young girl could be so attentive and untrusting and violent. He knew she was probably terrified, the smallest tremors or cracks in her strong facade leaking ever so slightly.

"Oh, I'm absolutely grand."

Miles sighed. "Look, we need to head back home to a station called Deep Space Nine. There will be Bajorans and Humans and all sorts of other alien species. We need to get out of here before..." _Before the Jem'Hadar find and kill us._

"Before what?" Kira asked. "Are we in the middle of Cardassian space?"

How do you explain the Cardassian withdrawal of Bajor, the Federation's involvement aboard what was once Terok Nor, and then the entire Dominion War? Fuck, Miles needed more coffee. Actually, scratch that - he needed a strong drink from Quark's, preferably with the lanky teenager besides him (as an adult, assuming they could fix this).

"Not exactly," Miles admitted. She opened her mouth to bully a better response out of him, but he continued, "It's just a bit dangerous to be out here alone, especially when two of my friends have been turned into children. If we can get back to DS9, we can hopefully resolve this... situation."

"We're friends?" A timid voice asked softly. Julian was still sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Miles, however this was the first time their gazes met.

"Of course, Julian. You, me and Kira are all friends and colleagues."

The latter rolled her eyes and looked at Julian. "I'm still calling bull, Federation boy."

"Uh, well... W-what if he showed us proof?"

Miles wanted to interrupt and remind them that he was still sitting there, but he also realized that that would only make a bad situation worse.

"Proof of what?" Kira accused. "Proof for his ridiculous time travel theory? You must be more stupid than I originally thought, _Julian_ , and that's really saying something."

Miles coughed. "Computer, pull up records on Major Kira Nerys."

Kira visibly stiffened at the address of her full name. Her hand holding the phaser shook, but it didn't fire. Miles knew that she could shoot it, and had likely done it in the past, but he suspected she wouldn't kill him. Wouldn't be able to stomach the burden of guilt at killing a man who was possibly innocent, a man who spoke (with half lies and half truths) of a world where Bajor was free from Cardassian oppression (kind of).

So Miles O'Brien took a gamble and won the house.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miles, Kira, and Julian have a chat on their way back to the wormhole...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry this took me long. :P
> 
> You see, I live in Texas and we've been dealing with an energy crisis this past week. My power and water pressure went out on Monday and never came back until about Thursday morning. Hurrah! I'm super excited to be able to work on this again, and thank you for the comments we got on the first chapter. :))

"Where did you say this station was?" Julian asked incredulously.

"Through the stable wormhole we're approaching," Miles said. "We're actually in the Gamma Quadrant right now."

He had reluctantly been given permission by Kira to pilot the runabout back to Deep Space Nine. She also still held a phaser at him and Julian, who didn't seem to care that much. Both children's behaviors worried Miles - one of them being expected with how Kira had lived through the Occupation and fought with the Resistance at a young age; the other, Julian, being more unexpected with how talkative his older self usually was.

Not to say that Miles was paranoid, but there was an uncomfortable feeling that had settled at the bottom of his stomach.

"And you said it's orbiting Bajor?" Kira added.

"It _once_ orbited Bajor. Of course, it's still relatively close."

Miles' fingers danced across the console, ignoring the way Kira's eyes burned into the back of his head. The runabout's scanners were active, however he suspected the energy surge was throwing off the readings. He knew that there was no way they could be so close to the wormhole already. With at least another several hours before their arrival in the Alpha Quadrant, the best Miles could do was stall.

He flicked the navigation controls over to auto-mode and turned to face Kira.

Lights from a padd reflected a hungry look in her eyes. On the screen was the front-running file on her, Miles having pulled it up from station records. As far as he knew, Kira had the truth right in front of her. Actually believing it was something completely different.

Julian was still being quiet. He too had a padd in his lap, however the screen was off. Miles wasn't sure whether or not he had read the files on him, or if Julian knew he was genetically enhanced. He didn't know which would be better - ignorance or horror. There was no better option involved in his best friend.

Unfortunately, the computer also couldn't manage to send a subspace message. There would be no communication to Deep Space Nine or Captain Sisko. Miles wouldn't even be able to give a heads-up: _Hiya, Captain, so Julian and Kira were turned into children and kinda tried to kill each other - but it's okay because I'm great with kids!_

Still, Miles found himself routinely checking communications with a sliver of hope in his mind.

* * *

Julian counted to one hundred and tried to gather his non-existent courage from wherever he could find it. However, once he made it up to the target number, he continued into higher numbers and ignored the screaming protests of his most inner consciousness.

All he wanted to do was ask a question, and yet Julian's fear kept him swaying in the opposite direction.

_Coward! Freak! Monster!_

He'd made it up to about three hundred before he even opened his mouth. No sound came out. _Do you know about me?_ The words died on his lips as Julian swallowed in a dry mouth.

Was it safe to talk in front of the Bajoran? Julian kept trying to meet her gaze, but Kira was more focused on giving Miles hell and delivering threats. Surprisingly, he wasn't afraid of the phaser she held. Maybe he was going into medical shock. Julian thought back to the symptoms listed in the medical textbook Richard Bashir had bought for him, hoping that maybe his son would go into the field.

Julian preferred tennis. The game had rules and always carried a general consensus when it came to playing a match or skirmish. Everyone agreed; everyone cooperated with their common interest. He wasn't sure that science was predictable in the same way. There were always variables.

But the padd in his hand said _Chief Medical Officer_ , didn't it? It also hadn't stated something along the lines of _Augmented Human_ , although truthfully, Julian wasn't sure he wanted to dig further into the files of a person he both was and wasn't.

_Four hundred sixty-two, four hundred sixty-three..._

From the corner of his eye, Julian noticed Kira giving him a look of interest. His head shot up so fast a wave of dizziness scrambled his thoughts and counting. He tried a weak smile. She didn't smile back, but instead arched an eyebrow and looked away.

At least it was a start. He wanted all the allies he could get if push came to shove.

Suddenly, an alarm erupted from the computer.

* * *

"Jem'Hadar vessel uncloaking behind us!" Miles yelled, likely out of habit. "Evasive maneuvers."

He raised the shields and rechecked the navigation port only to find the ETA reading at two and a half hours (assuming it was semi-accurate, which was unlikely). Kira listened to him curse as the runabout bounced with the shots being fired from the enemy ship.

Nonetheless, she spun in her chair. Her eyes looked over the console and her hands hesitated over the lights. She had been in a few small vessels before, however it was usually someone else in her resistance cell who piloted or manned the weapons. Uncertainty filled her mind as Kira looked on with fear. They were in a war with the Cardassians, the padd had told her. Miles had said "Jem'Hadar", though, and she didn't recognize the design.

Sparks flying out of another console snapped her out of her thoughts.

The runabout redirected itself with Miles' command for evasive maneuvers. It turned towards its starboard side and tilted to dodge the flashing lights coming at them. Kira tried to make sense of the readings in front of her. The ship was bigger and faster and seemed to carry a bigger weapons capacity. Apparently, the Jem'Hadar weren't Cardassians in terms of operations.

But it didn't make a damn bit of difference. They were still screwed.

"Weapons?" Kira asked shakily.

Miles barely spared her a glance. "Limited. We can't hold them off for long, and communications are still down."

She glanced back at the console and took a guess. At her touch of a button, some kind of torpedo shot out from the runabout and launched in the direction of the Jem'Hadar vessel. With the scanners still in a semi-working condition, it was a bullseye with their hull. Unfortunately, the sensor readings didn't change - her attack resulted in little to no damage.

The port side console was sparking with a ferocious passion. Fire shot up and glared a harsh, orange light into the runabout, flickering and dissolving the shadows dancing in the darkest corners.

Julian coughed from somewhere behind her. She also heard what vaguely resembled a fire extinguisher. Where he had found it, Kira didn't know. That Federation boy was just full of surprises.

"Shields are down to seventy percent," Miles said. Kira wished he wouldn't say stuff like that aloud.

"Hull integrity s-standing at—" the computer paused abruptly. Why, she didn't know, but it didn't exactly mirror a solution to Kira.

She cursed and tried to get her limbs to move, or at least do anything but remain frozen in place. The runabout was set at a cool temperature, too cool to be cold and too warm to be hot. Kira still felt a chill in her bones. It was like her first resistance mission all over again - from the cold making her bite her numb fingers, to the way this Federation runabout resembled many features of the Cardassian skimmer they had destroyed.

Everything was hazy with smoke and sparks. Kira braced herself for an encounter with death. But before she uttered a greeting, several things happened at once:

Her eyes met Julian's hazel ones as they exchanged a final, parting look.

The computer beeped again, but not in a way that signaled their intimate destruction. In her delirious state, it almost sounded like another vessel entering scanning range...

Miles breathed out a sigh of relief over the wailing alarms, and yelled, "It's the _Defiant_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are appreciated! :D


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dax is amused. Sisko is done with everything. Oh, and there's a whole lot of confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I don't know why I'm referring to everyone but Sisko by their first names, but I'm too lazy to worry about it anymore than I already have.

"Shields are standing at eighty percent."

"Firing torpedos."

"Sir, I'm reading their hull integrity falling quickly. Seventy... Fifty-five... Thirty..."

Sisko watched the view screen explode in a flash of lights and sparks as one Jem'Hadar ship was destroyed. Soon, the debris and specks of light were lost to the stars hanging all around them, seemingly fading away as the few seconds of calm before the storm settled in.

The _Defiant_ readjusted its sensor lock onto the other ship, Worf manning the weapons while Nog piloted at the helm. On the view screen, the Jem'Hadar disappeared on their starboard side and reappeared behind the rear hull. If they felt any trepidation towards their inevitable defeat or their now fallen comrades, they didn't show it as they lined up their weapons and fired.

From the corner of his eye, Sisko saw his crew fight to remain in their seats as the _Defiant_ rocked to and fro. He did the same and steadied his hand on his chair.

"Target locked," Worf said, looking up from his console.

"Fire."

Sisko blinked and almost missed seeing his command in action. Torpedos shot out from the _Defiant_ and erupted into the Jem'Hadar vessel's side, tearing its hull and occupants into oblivion. And like before, any visible signs of what was once a Dominion presence had vanished into thin air. While the war, its battles, and even the smaller skirmishes had left an imprint, apparently not everything was affected.

The sound of an incoming hail pierced the air and interrupted his thoughts.

"On screen." Sisko stood and looked into the main view screen.

He expected to see his doctor and chief and major with relieved smiles brightening their faces. They'd be assisted with runabout repairs and perhaps even medical checkups. What he didn't expect, however, was to see the pale face of Miles O'Brien as he shifted uneasily and looked at something off screen.

"Chief, is everyone alright?"

Miles hesitated. "Er, there's been an incident, sir. Request medical attention for Kira and Julian."

 _Not urgent?_ Sisko decided not to ask about the odd tone of voice he was using. "Standby. We'll beam the three of you straight to Sickbay."

Miles nodded and quickly glanced to the side. A shadow passed over his face as he opened his mouth but no words came out. A second later, he shook his head.

"Are you sure," Sisko said, frowning slightly, "that you're not hurt also?"

"I'm fine, sir. I was just thinking about how I was going to explain... what's happened."

"Well, I look forward to that."

Jadzia fought back the urge to grin as she turned to look at Sisko. He raised an eyebrow at her and nodded at Miles before cutting the transmission.

"Dax, you're with me. You have the bridge, Mr. Worf."

As soon as they had stepped off the bridge and started towards Sickbay, Jadzia mused, "Chief O'Brien looked like he was about to have an aneurysm."

"Old Man," Sisko sighed.

"What? Just an observation."

Sisko recalled how the Chief had mentioned Kira and Julian needing medical attention. Dozens of scenarios flooded his mind. He wouldn't have thought that a research expedition could have gone wrong, but then again, welcome to Deep Space Nine, where anything and everything fails. Especially during a war. He supposed the injuries to his officers and friends could have been from their encounter with the Jem'Hadar. Although Sisko also found it unlikely that both of them could get hurt that easily.

Maybe they were all slipping - everyone, that is. The war had been hard and messy.

Jadzia and Sisko rounded the final corner before Sickbay. They saw Miles standing outside the doors, beckoning them over.

"Captain... I just want to warn you."

"Warn us?" Sisko asked.

"Well, I don't suspect that it's permanent," Miles added quickly.

"Chief." The captain glanced at Jadzia, mirroring her concern. "You're seriously starting to worry me. Now tell me something more than a hunch."

"It'd be better to show you." Miles stepped aside.

The doors slid open as Sisko approached. He had barely walked through the threshold when he froze, momentarily paralyzed by the sight before him. Jadzia bumped into his back at his abrupt pause before sidestepping.

She whispered at him, "At least they're cute, Benjamin."

"Old Man, please." He steeled himself and walked over to the nurse on duty, Miles joining him a second later. "What exactly happened?"

The nurse held a padd in her hands. "We're running some tests right now. As far as I'm aware, though, it looks like their physical forms and minds have regressed into a child-like version of themselves. Other than that, they're relatively healthy."

"And you've confirmed that they're Major Kira and Doctor Bashir?"

"Same blood type, genes, and of course, the kids highly resemble their adult selves."

Sisko took a long, hard look at the children. The girl definitely carried the same firey red hair that belonged to Kira Nerys. The boy was smiling with wide dimples and a slightly awed look in his eyes - without a doubt, it was Julian Bashir.

"Relatively healthy?" Jadzia inquired.

"Major Kira seems to have traces of old injuries that have never healed properly."

"What about Julian's genetic engineering?"

"It's too early to say. We'll have to run an in-depth genetic scan."

Sisko turned to Chief O'Brien.

"There was some kind of energy surge while I was in the back part of the runabout," Miles said. "Just like that, there's a Bajoran girl and a Human boy near the con and no one else in sight.

"Could it have been a temporal anomaly?" Jadzia guessed.

Sisko thought for a moment. "I want a full report on the runabout's computer logs and sensors prior to the energy surge."

"I'll get started on repairs right away, Captain." Miles turned to leave, but then stopped. "Something similar to this happened on the _Enterprise_ once, but it was with the transporter."

"It might be worth looking into," he agreed.

"Once we complete a few basic neural scans, we'll send the data to Doctor Girani back at the station," the nurse said.

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Sisko took a few steps away before turning to Jadzia, her pale blue eyes carrying a strange look that he associated with two of their friends being de-aged.

"I suppose we should meet them."

"I was waiting for you to say that." Jadzia grinned.

He thought about all her past lives and the wisdom that came with it all. Like himself, Dax had been a parent before. Neither of them (or Miles for that matter) were walking into the situation empty handed. Then again, none of their experience relied on the Occupation of Bajor or genetic enhancements.

"How much do you need? You already took a lot more than necessary."

"Sweetie, please—"

"Don't call me 'sweetie' or 'sweetheart' or anything of that sort."

Jadzia crossed the room and smiled brightly at Kira, who was the one currently arguing with a med-tech or nurse who was trying to take blood samples.

"Let me try, please?" Jadzia said, gently. "I'm Jadzia Dax, a friend."

"A Trill!" Julian exclaimed with fascination. They smiled at each other, although his slipped away as if he was realizing something.

"Another scientist who wants to pick and prod at us, Federation boy," Kira muttered in his direction.

A second later though and she nodded at Jadzia to gather more blood samples for some tests and scans. Jadzia took the scanner from the nurse with an apologetic look before putting it up to one of Kira's veins. A trickle of red blood flowed in, Jadzia handing it off to the nurse when it reached a suitable amount. Sisko saw Kira's gaze flicker into something like alarm at the sight of her own blood.

He cleared his throat. "My name is Captain Benjamin Sisko. We're currently aboard the Federation starship _Defiant_."

"I'm Julian Bashir."

Sisko got a sudden flash back to his first meeting with the young doctor after his arrival on DS9. The way his dimpled cheeks had practically radiated with joy at being assigned to such a frontier-like post had been the complete opposite of Sisko's own inner turmoil at accepting the job.

Kira rolled her eyes and muttered something nearly inaudible. He picked up only a few words, something along the lines of an introduction.

Sisko smiled warmly. "Can I ask how old the both of you are?"

"Fifteen," Julian replied almost instantly.

Kira thought for a moment. Either that, or she was internally cursing everyone and everything. "Something like that."

For a second, Sisko thought she had quite literally read his mind. Then he realized that Kira was admitting she was the same age as Julian.

As the war and his Starfleet career marched on, Sisko found himself often wishing for just one damn day of peace and nothingness in terms of their weekly disasters.

_At least they're cute, Benjamin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are strings for the words floating in my mind. Thanks for reading! Next chapter coming soon.
> 
> ...I hate writing dialogue.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian and Miles finally get to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New title! I didn't like the old one.

The room itself somehow seemed to reflect his own quietness. Julian was almost tempted to call out, just to see if his voice would echo through the emptiness.

He shifted on one foot to the other. There was a bunk he could've sat on, and Julian wished that he could muster his courage to do even that simple act, but instead, he remained standing in the middle of the room, drowning in the silence that encased him.

With the  _ Defiant  _ being so big, he would've imagined that you would be able to hear the sounds of people clamoring about, or even the persistent hum of whatever circuits ran behind the wall plating. Yet he heard nothing except the latter; Julian chalked that up to his stupid genetically enhanced hearing. It was annoying to drift away from reality only to focus on that, but he also found it a welcome distraction from everything else.

_ Everything else  _ being his presence in the future, on a Starfleet ship. What was even worse was the fact that he couldn't deny the truth Miles and the others had told him - that Julian Bashir was this widely respected doctor and glorified Chief Medical Officer. The blue and grey uniform sticking to the rivulets of sweat on the back of his neck were all the proof he needed, along with the padd he'd read earlier.

Julian eyed the bunks again. All he had to do was put one foot in front of the other. He could sit down to better fight the waves of nausea pulling him under the water.

He didn't know exactly why they had left him in what he assumed was his older self's quarters (shared ones, at that). Everyone had seemed just as confused as Julian, but their confusion didn't get in the way of their daily lives and work routines. So while they were being useful, Julian was standing, trapped and afloat in his mind in a hollow room.

He never realized how lonely one could get, even when surrounded by dozens of other people.

_ Coward! Freak! Monster! _

The bunk looked so nice to rest on. Sure, it was thin and looked as if it could break with any extra weight, but to anyone after a long day, it was still heavenly. 

Julian cleared his throat, the small sound barely taking a second before thrusting him back into the intoxicating quietness of the quarters.

He should've run while he had the chance. Maybe this was his temporary imprisonment while they worked out what to do with a genetically enhanced freak like himself. Julian knew he had missed at least one or two fortunate opportunities to slink away into the shadows of the great unknown before him. Where that somewhere was, he didn't have the slightest clue.

_ I walk on untrodden ground,  _ a ghost whispered into his ear. 

Julian recalled reading about the man behind the quote and dozens of precedents in the old days of the United States of America. In one of his classes, they had had to annotate and analyze the words, just to truly see how beautiful yet uncertain they were. George Washington had stepped into the role of being the first American president following their revolution for freedom.

But while Washington's path had been fuzzy, there was still a streak of governance and enlightenment to draw upon. The sharpest thorns and brambles were cleared for him, while Julian would be poked and prodded by each and every one. Warm blood would spill from the cuts painting his body, running into the now withering grass. His role had been running unprecedented since the days of Khan Noonien Singh.

The comparison scared him more than anything. Julian wouldn't hurt anyone, would he? He thought he was better than the level of standard set centuries before he was born and modified into something unnatural.

He sighed and looked up, willing tears not to fall. Julian hadn't cried in years, but the knowledge that his entire life - past, present, and future (kind of?) - would have to be done  _ illegally  _ was heart wrenching. The word left a bad taste in his mouth.

His achievements were lies. Grades. Performances. Every single one had been the result of genetic scrambling.

Just when Julian had had enough of his self-pity, and was about to lie down on the bunk to drift away, there was a chime at the door. He realized he didn't know who his older self shared quarters with.

The door slid open as he sat up.

"Er, hello," Miles O'Brien said, crossing the threshold and making his way to the bunk besides Julian's.

Julian smiled back and hoped it wasn't as tight as it felt. 

He put his head back down on the pillow and drew his knees up to his chest. The only sounds in the room were of Miles taking off his outer uniform jacket and boots. Then the Irishman climbed onto his bunk, his face pointed up towards the grey ceiling above.

_ Is he asleep?  _ Julian wondered, feeling awkward.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly blurted.

"Hmph? What could you be sorry for, Julian?" So Miles wasn't asleep after all.

"Just… I don't know. D-do you know about me?"  _ About the enhancements? _

"You have friends on this ship, including myself. No one cares about your genetic resequencing. They're just genes."

"But genes make up a person," Julian argued. "Genes are the most basic elements in heredity."

He heard rustling, and then Miles was sitting up and making one-way eye contact. "Exactly. Heredity."

"It sounds like I've already lied enough times for a lifetime or two, so I'll just come out and say that your point is lost on me."

"Heredity has to do with your parents and the physical characteristics you inherit, right?" Miles said.

Julian swallowed. "Yeah."

"In a non-literal sense, it was your parent's fault for the enhancements. I'd still call that heredity."

"At its finest," Julian remarked in spite of himself. He rose to lean against the wall next to his bunk.

Miles smiled and moved to sit next to Julian, the latter surprisingly not moving away but instead leaning closer.

"But I think it's like Theseus's ship," Julian continued. "You replace all the weathered down and useless boards of the ship as time beats it down, and eventually there's no old planks left. But now what do you call it? Is this new collection of raw and fresh material truly still Theseus's ship? The question of whether it's still original or not has been a topic of discussion for centuries, and who's to say I'm not the newest iteration?

"Some mad doctors and scientists on Adigeon Prime scrambled my genes like eggs. They replaced the defective parts of me, in exchange for a perfect child. Effectively, I'm a new Julian Bashir!"

Miles put a hand on his shoulder. "But as I once told your older self, it's not genes or DNA that gives you a personality or passion. You may identify as an Augment, but you're so much more than that, Julian. A label shouldn't define all of you, especially one brought on by the public's fear."

"But maybe their fears are valid! What if I'm like Khan? Where would I stand if another war like the Eugenics War breaks out? Would I side with the people who take away my rights, my opportunities, and then proceed to persecute me? Or would I be with the rest of the unnatural freaks hellbent on domination?"

"Julian. I don't know for sure what you'd do in that situation, no one does except for yourself if we're unfortunate enough to have a repeat of history."

"I'm a variable then," Julian huffed. "I'm a ticking time bomb.

"But you have to have trust in yourself. I trust you, Captain Sisko trusts you, and you'll eventually become an extraordinary doctor trusted by hundreds of your patients."

"That's different," he defended weakly.

"But is it really?" Miles said. "Sure, the Julian Bashir I know is more knowledgeable and experienced, but at the core, he's still the same Julian I'm sitting with and debating  _ philosophy _ with!"

" _ That  _ Julian sounds… I don't know. He sounds figured out."

"And he got there by overcoming his fears of being outed as an Augment, instead opting to give himself a better life, one in which he could get a frontier post in Starfleet, a medical license, and thus meet incredible people who - as much as it pains me to say - can't imagine  _ not  _ working with a Doctor Bashir."

Julian stared at his feet for a moment. His older self would have been in his same situation, minus the insight from the future, of course.  _ That  _ Julian, or Jules as he would've been before the discovery of Adigeon Prime, would have read the same documents. He would have panicked and thought about how he could go on to maneuver a life of lies and potential persecution.

Yet his being here seemed to prove that yes, the means justified the end for him.

"And yes, we were friends before and after the grand revelation," Miles continued. "Hell, nothing has changed even now! We're still friends even though you're over twenty years younger—" he muttered the next part under his breath— "and still somehow taller than me, eh?"

"Well, I'm sorry for putting you into this situation."

"Don't apologize for giving me good blackmail material. Dax has already taken pictures."

"That Trill science officer, right?" Julian recalled.

"Right. Believe me, when this happened to my wife aboard the  _ Enterprise-D _ —"

"Your  _ wife _ was de-aged?" He asked incredulously, barely containing a laugh.

Miles made a sound halfway between a sigh and a groan. He put his head into his hands in an exasperated motion. 

"It was awful then, but now I look back and laugh. 'Miles Edward O'Brien, how do you get yourself into these damn situations all the bloody time?'"

"Maybe I can do that someday," Julian mused. "Look back on all of this and know that somehow, some way… there's light at the end of the tunnel."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't ask me why Julian, a non-American character, learned about a quote from an American president. I just really like the word "untrodden", m'kay?
> 
> Also, do these two share quarters? Probably not. I don't care.
> 
> There'll now be six chapters in this story! I had a complete change of plans for this chapter when I had too much fun writing about Theseus's ship!

**Author's Note:**

> Next update coming soon! :)
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated fuel for the words floating in my head.


End file.
